Saving America's High Schools

''High schools are not working for a substantial number of the 14 million adolescents they are charged with educating. At best, one in four public high school students does not graduate in four years. More alarmingly, high school graduation is only a 50-50 proposition for low-income and minority students.'' The numbers Becky Smerdon and Kathryn Borman cite are sobering, but not surprising. Our educational system is in a continuous state of reform, yet outcomes are nowhere near what we can accept. Though the search for answers is perpetual, many efforts over the past decade have homed in on one feature of high schools―their size. If we simply reduce school size, the argument goes, students will gain a safer environment that can address their individual needs and learning styles. It seems like common sense, but such changes alone have not proven a magic bullet for success. And even where evaluations do exist, they have not been rigorous, data rich, or replicable enough to guide schools and policymakers toward real success. Saving America's High Schools, with contributions from the foremost experts in school reform, urban education, and child development and poverty, offers strong quantitative research drawn from large-scale high school reform studies nationwide along with recommendations to reform policy and practice at federal, state, and district levels.